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A 140-year-old institution with one of the UK’s leading Egyptological collections needed a single, searchable system. Here’s what changed when they found it.
The Egypt Exploration Society manages around 20,000 library volumes alongside a digitised archive spanning decades of fieldwork. Soutron brought both together in a hosted, cloud-based platform – giving researchers worldwide access to collections they previously couldn’t find.
With a mission largely unchanged since its foundation, the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) continues to explore Egyptian sites and monuments, to create a lasting record of the remains and to increase knowledge and understanding of Egypt’s past. As a result, the Society is now home to one of the UK’s leading Egyptological libraries and archives containing material dating back to its establishment in 1882.
With around 20,000 volumes on its shelves and open to the public five days a week, the Ricardo Caminos Memorial Library provides a haven for researchers, students, scholars and those interested in the history of Egypt and Egyptology.
Hazel Gray, Office Manager at the EES chose Soutron to replace an old Windows library system (Alice) in 2014 and persuaded colleagues Carl Graves (Archivist) and Maria Rodriguez Rubin (Archive Intern) to consider the potential of using Soutron to make the archive catalog available online too.
The Society’s Lucy Gura Archive had previously been catalog in a FilemakerPro database which included over 5000 records, though without any hierarchical structure or digitized material connected to it.
Soutron offered an opportunity to restructure the archive holdings in order to reflect the arrangement of records in the Society’s care. With flexible templates designed using ISAD (G) guidelines, and with additions based on the unique history of the EES, the Soutron catalog has provided the Society with the tools to make its archive holdings searchable online for the first time.
“Users love the search and attributed search features. The end result, we now have a solution without compromise!”
Hazel Gray
EES Office Manager
There are only six full time members of staff in the EES so the investment in any IT system is quite a major undertaking.
The fact that the system is hosted and managed by Soutron at their UK data center removed the need to call on any internal IT resources and was a large point in Soutron’s favour.
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The Society’s library and archive today share the same Soutron database but there are different acquisition and catalog processes depending on whether the material is destined for the library or the archive. In addition, the small library collection held in the Society’s Cairo office is also being integrated, as well as archive material currently held in Oxford with the Society’s collection of ancient papyri.
After showing the solution to Egyptological colleagues in Egypt, Carl Graves commented “The possibilities offered by the new combined Library and Archive solution means that we can explore collaborations with institutions, archives and museum collections across the world, aiding access to research collections and related materials in more ways than we ever expected.”
The Society’s collection of record cards, reporting objects discovered on archaeological sites during the 1930s, has already been linked with museum collections around the globe and library holdings within the Society where they have been published.
Hazel Gray said “We now have callers who are no longer asking if we have a particular publication. They are now requesting more detailed information using the search portal to carry out their own research, prior to calling.”
Soutron’s upgrades and enhancements have demonstrated the merits of being on a supported product, as features and functions have been introduced that have perfectly suited the needs of the library and archive.
On the new EES branded search portal Hazel said, “Feedback has been great, thanks to a user friendly design. Users love the search and attributed search features. The end result, we now have a solution without compromise!”
Learn more about the Egypt Exploration Society: www.ees.ac.uk
To find out how you can migrate to a fast, secure, cloud-based archive and collections management system to support your organization, book a 20 minute discovery call with us today, see below.
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The first step is to learn more. Here's how we can answer your questions:
Yes. The Egypt Exploration Society runs its library and archive from a single Soutron database, with separate acquisition and cataloging workflows for each. Library volumes and archive records are managed independently but sit within the same platform, making cross-collection search possible for the first time.
The Egypt Exploration Society has just six full-time staff and no dedicated IT resource. By using Soutron's hosted, cloud-based platform managed from a UK data center, the team avoided any internal infrastructure overhead. The system is maintained and updated by Soutron, freeing staff to focus on the collection.
The EES migrated over 5,000 records from a FileMaker Pro database into Soutron, restructuring them using ISAD(G) guidelines. The original records had no hierarchical structure and no digitized material attached.
After migration, the archive was made fully searchable online for the first time, with flexible templates built around the unique history of the Society.
Yes. The EES used Soutron to link 1930s excavation record cards to museum collections around the world and to library holdings within the Society. A public search portal gives researchers global access to the collections.
The system also supports integration with external sites, including collections held in Cairo and Oxford, with the potential to become the UK's first fully integrated Egyptological library and archive.
